The best place to start in cooking and baking more healthfully is to find substitutions for the sweeteners you commonly use. Using a sweetener that you enjoy (and that works well in the type of recipe you are making) is key to changing from sugar (or other high-glycemic sweeteners) to a low-sugar/no-sugar lifestyle.

When I was homeschooling seven kids for thirty-two years, I would often tell my kids, “Every day can’t be special.” Oh, I loved making things special for my kids—but I also wanted them to love (and maybe even crave) “normal.” Just be able to do the stuff day in and day out. Do those things that made them successful students and kids. And so it is with eating more healthfully and eating for weight management. Every day can’t be special. And one of the worst sabotages in weight management is assigning “special” to every day—and indulging way too much in foods and/or amounts that will not help us meet our health and weight goals.

Since I published my two low carb flour mixes, I have gotten questions concerning when to use each one, etc. So until I get the dozens of recipes up that go with each mix, I thought I would write a general post about the mixes, direct you to some recipes using them, etc. So this post will detail more about my Very Low Carb Flour Mix and my Sprouted Low Carb Flour Mix!

First of all, check out the handy chart that shows carb counts in each of my flour mixes as well as other low carb (and non low carb) flours.

In my four years of low carb baking and cooking, I have tried them all. Some have turned out great. And some not so great. Baking with low carb “flours” can be challenging. They just don’t act like the flours we are used to baking with. They don’t taste like them either! So what do you do with almond flour, coconut flour, flax, oat fiber, and more? Which low carb flours are truly low and which are not? What about incorporating other flours together to make a more acceptable-to-family flour mix or flour blends?

INTRODUCING MY DOUGH BABY

I make many low carb “doughs” and “batters.” I don’t mind a cream cheese and mozzarella biscuit. I actually love breakfast sandwich fillings or jam on my “Not So Oopsie” rolls. (And they’re also good made into “cream cheese danishes”!) I like my crepe recipe—both savory and sweet. But oh for yeast dough! And even more oh for low carb yeast dough…and low carb rolls, low carb pizza dough, low carb cinnamon rolls and more—made out of more “real tasting” flours!

I’m not a fan of some of the doughs available for low carb or healthy bakers. I don’t like trying to pass off a “quick bread” (i.e. in a mug) or with flax and oat fiber as a bread. I don’t like the feel on my teeth (okay, they make me cringe a little) of doughs that are primarily made of cheese (or the flavor or the fat and calorie content!). And I really don’t like the taste of psyllium husk in a batter.

Yes, those doughs and batters are extremely low carb (often low carb/high fat/super calorie dense), which makes them ideal for keto situations. But I haven’t enjoyed them too much.